


Mask

by White Aster (white_aster)



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Community: kinkfest, First Time, Hand Job, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-30
Updated: 2008-03-30
Packaged: 2017-10-05 16:47:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/white_aster/pseuds/White%20Aster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't so much about hiding his identity anymore, or about creating a new one.  The world had all but ended.  What was the point?  No, he wore it now, he had to admit, out of habit and as a shield.</p><p> </p><p>For the prompt:<br/>Final Fantasy VI, Shadow/Sabin: Experience difference - Being taken off-guard</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mask

Shadow still wore the mask. Even after the Ruin, even after throwing in with them for the good of the world and _no pay_...he still wore the mask. No one commented on it, though he caught the prince of Figaro's lips twist in amusement every now and then when he went through the extra trouble of eating and drinking with it still on.

It wasn't so much about hiding his identity anymore, or about creating a new one. The world had all but ended. What was the point? No, he wore it now, he had to admit, out of habit and as a shield. He had traveled with these people for longer than he had with anyone, except...one other, and knew them almost as well. There was attachment and camaraderie forming there, and that, he knew, could be dangerous. The proof of that walked ten paces in front of him, paint under her fingernails and occasionally streaked through her hair.

But Shadow knew that he would not leave. And so the mask was his last defense, thin as it was. As long as they thought of the mask as him, he could pretend that it was so, and the others seemed to respect that.

Most of the others, at least.

Shadow saw him coming, of course. Light on his feet as he was, Sabin was anything but _subtle_. That wasn't to say that Shadow wasn't surprised. At the offer itself. At the almost obscene amount of forthrightness with which it was delivered.

At himself, that he said yes. At Sabin, who for an almost monkish warrior seemed to have a remarkably varied range of sexual experience and was more than willing to expand it a bit further just for the hell of it.

"So," Sabin said, leaning against the same tree, both of them breathing hard. Pressed for time, they hadn't gotten much further than open trousers and stroking hands, but that was well on its way to being more than enough. It was, Shadow thought, more than a little ridiculous: two grown men groping in the forest like a pair of teenagers. Not that he was complaining, precisely. "So," Sabin said again, resisting the distraction of Shadow's fingers to finally catch his train of thought. "You going to let me actually see your face when we do this? Sometime?"

"You've seen my face," Shadow pointed out, in a voice that he hoped communicated the proper amount of "need we discuss this _right now_?"

Sabin made a noise that was half approval, half protest, pressing closer, so that Shadow could feel the sheer mass of him against his chest. "You know what I mean."

"You want--" Shadow kept his voice flat, though he couldn't repress a pause or two when Sabin did something particularly right. "--you want me to stop THIS--" he demonstrated "--in order to take it off?"

Sabin turned to face him full-on, bracing his arm against the trunk, over Shadow's head. "Mmmm, fuck yeah."

It set off an alarm somewhere in the more paranoid parts of Shadow's brain. But, somehow, all he said was, "You are ridiculous," before he extricated a hand to pull the mask up and over and off. The breeze was remarkably refreshing against his sweaty skin.

Any worries he might have had over, oh, anything as silly as looks and age were laid to rest when Sabin all but _purred_. "Don't gimme that look. C'mon, say something sarcastic so I know it's you."

Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Just like that." And then Sabin leaned in to kiss him, and that was _much_ too personal, but as Sabin's strong hands played over him, Shadow forgot to protest.


End file.
